Charles Sims, who filed a brief supporting the University of Texas' use of racial preferences on behalf of 36 small liberal arts colleges, said Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito -- the two Republican nominees not on the court when the last affirmative action case was decided -- seemed to reject using race in admissions decisions.

"The hostility they exhibited toward the efforts of Texas to deal with a very complex problem is disheartening," Sims said.

Others were less despondent but concerned nonetheless with the upheaval that could follow a decision in the spring to toss out racial preferences.

Ada Meloy, general counsel for the American Council on Education, said college and university officials hope they won't have to revisit their admissions policies so soon after the court's 2003 ruling involving the University of Michigan. That decision allows race to be considered as one of many factors in admission.

Some educators argued against racial preferences to protect the rights of those who they say are victims of discrimination when universities ignore their superior qualifications.

"Nowhere in the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence does the word 'diversity' appear," a group of Texas faculty members state in a brief supporting the plaintiff, 22-year-old Abigail Fisher. "There is no constitutional basis for the courts, let alone a state university, to engage in such a radical restructuring of America, allocating education, jobs and contracts based on race."

When she wrote the decision, retired justice Sandra Day O'Connor expressed the hope that racial preferences would be unnecessary in 25 years.

"We had thought and hoped that the prediction by Justice O'Connor would have meant we wouldn't have to be constantly moving the goal post," Meloy said. "It would help if we knew that was the case and it wasn't constantly being challenged or changed."

Depo Adegbile, acting president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, urged college admissions officials to continue business as usual, at least for now.

"Once the ruling comes down, there may be a need to do nothing, to modify their approach slightly, or the court could reach more deeply," Adegbile said.

A broad ruling on whether affirmative action is constitutional could affect colleges and universities nationwide. But Adegbile noted that lawyers for the plaintiff focused their case more narrowly on whether the University of Texas was complying with the 2003 ruling.

Several liberal justices implied that a new standard would create havoc not only for admissions offices but for district courts across the country charged with interpreting the law.

"Why overrule a case into which so much thought and effort went and so many people across the country have depended on?" asked Justice Stephen Breyer.

University of Texas President Bill Powers said a ruling against Texas "would be a setback for the university and society."

Outside court, civil rights leaders Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Ben Jealous, head of the NAACP, addressed a crowd of about 250 people that included students, labor leaders and activists for women and minorities. They extolled the virtues of programs that promote diversity among students.

"We have more women doctors, judges, lawyers because of Title IX," Jackson said. "It's illegal to lock out women. It should be illegal to lock out blacks or browns or minorities."